Citizenship and Naturalization

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 4, 2015

Federal agents raid 37 locations in southern California that they say are illegal 'birth factories' where Chinese women come to give birth so that their babies will gain United States citizenship; raid, largest carried out so far, is intended to crack down on birth tourism industry, not mothers themselves, since it is not illegal for foreigners to give birth in America. MORE

Feb. 1, 2015

Seventy-two people in Bahrain are stripped of their citizenship for security reasons. MORE

Jan. 24, 2015

Constitutional Council, France's top court, rules in case involving Ahmed Sahnouni that it was legal for Prime Min Manuel Valls to strip Sahnouni of his citizenship due to his engagement in terrorist activities; ruling strengthens France's antiterrorism law that allows government to strip citizenship of citizens who have dual nationalities. MORE

Dec. 14, 2014

Robert Frank Inside Wealth column observes that the global rich are spending an increasing amount of money to secure passport portfolios, spending an estimated $2 billion to hedge against their own volatile governments or economies; notes that vast majority of group are from emerging-market countries, and are shopping for passports or entree into Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. MORE

Dec. 8, 2014

Op-Ed article by Jonathan Tepper, expatriate founder of company Variant Perception, explains his decision to forsake his American passport in favor of sole British citizenship; cites onerous financial reporting and tax filing requirements that are neither fair nor just; calls on United States to end its outdated and byzantine extraterritorial tax policies. MORE

Nov. 11, 2014

Pamela Druckerman Op-Ed article discusses her long-term effort to become a dual French citizen; observes that process can take many years, and seems designed to test the applicant's patience and degree of cultural assimilation; notes process has raised certain existential issues, including whether she will regret abandoning the identity of otherness she has developed in her 10 years living in France. MORE

Nov. 8, 2014

Federal appeals court rejects bids by Arizona and Kansas to force federal government to require proof of citizenship for voter registration in their states; says that while the Constitution allows states to set voter requirements for state office, it does not give them the power to force the federal agency to alter its forms. MORE

Oct. 4, 2014

Federal Judge Denise L Cote, ignoring requests for leniency, sentences former New York State Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa to one year in prison for buying an $8,000 sham marriage to gain citizenship. MORE

Oct. 1, 2014

Kuwait is increasingly wielding its right to revoke citizenship, penalty that has long been rare in country known as most politically open of Persian Gulf monarchies; effort is part of attempt to crack down on political dissent while world's attention is focused on militant extremists in Iraq and Syria. MORE

Aug. 1, 2014

Five people file lawsuit against federal government, claiming that expanded national security screening targeting Muslims has led to lengthy delays and denials in their citizenship and green card applications. MORE

Jul. 22, 2014

Kuwait's cabinet strips five people of their citizenship; decision involves former Islamist opposition lawmaker Abdullah al-Barshash, three of his siblings, and Ahmad al-Shemmeri, owner of independent television station Al Youm and newspaper Alam al Yawm. MORE

Jun. 10, 2014

Public Religion Research Institute poll shows that while 62 percent of Americans favor a path to citizenship for immigrants living in the United States illegally, Republican voters are sharply split on the issue going into the November elections. MORE

Jun. 10, 2014

Divided Supreme Court rules that children of immigrants who lost their places in slow-moving immigration system, because they turned 21 before their parents received their immigrant visa, cannot be given special priority and must start out anew on road to citizenship; decision could affect untold numbers of young immigrants across country. MORE

May. 23, 2014

Dominican Republic, facing international pressure, is poised to create path to citizenship for tens of thousands of people of Haitian descent were born to illegal migrants, but have Dominican identification papers. MORE

May. 22, 2014

Mario Hernandez of Florida becomes a United States citizen nearly 50 years after arriving from Cuba as a child; Hernandez served in the military and worked for both state and federal agencies in his career, but only found out when he retired and tried to get a passport that his parents had never filed the paperwork to make him a resident and a citizen. MORE

May. 21, 2014

United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit delivers new setback to officials in Arizona and Kansas, ruling that residents there can continue registering to vote using a federal form without having to show proof of citizenship. MORE

May. 17, 2014

Rep Eric Cantor of Virginia, House majority leader, will block a vote on legislation giving a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who serve in the military. MORE

May. 15, 2014

Great Britain passes legislation that allows government to strip terrorism suspects of their citizenship even if it renders them stateless, taking the country’s already sweeping powers to revoke nationality a step further; clause is part of new new immigration bill that removes a previous restriction on leaving individuals without citizenship. MORE

May. 13, 2014

Discovery by Mario Hernandez that he is not an American citizen, despite having lived in United States for nearly 50 years, serving in the Army and having a career in federal agencies, illustrates how government bureaucracies can stumble when it comes to immigration status; Hernandez was brought to US from Cuba when he was 9 years old. MORE

Apr. 10, 2014

Government of British Prime Min David Cameron, faced with concerns that steady stream of British Muslims traveling to fight in Syria could pose a threat on their return, is pushing legislation to expand its right to revoke citizenship, which among other things keeps terrorism suspects from re-entering the country; is seeking to include naturalized citizens who have no other nationality and would be rendered stateless. MORE

Apr. 6, 2014

Program in Malta that offers citizenship for cash is raising concern among European Union officials who fear it could open a back door into Europe and the United States for swindlers, criminals or terrorists; price tag currently runs up to $1.57 million. MORE

Apr. 3, 2014

Florida Gov Rick Scott's effort to remove voters who are not American citizens from voter registration rolls suffers one-two punch when federal appeals court rules against program and Florida's state secretary Ken Detzner decides to temporarily suspend program. MORE

Mar. 22, 2014

Alabama says it plans to move ahead with a requirement for potential voters to show concrete proof of citizenship; move is first sign of wider impact from a court decision ordering a federal elections agency to help Arizona and Kansas enforce their own such requirement; ruling is all but certain to be appealed. MORE

Mar. 20, 2014

Spanish government is being flooded with thousands of inquiries about legislation it approved that will grant dual citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain more than 500 years ago. MORE

Feb. 16, 2014

Spanish Parliament, in gesture of conciliation for expulsion of Jews during Inquisition in 1492, is set to approve bill that will offer citizenship to anyone of Sephardic Jewish heritage; Justice Ministry has already registered 3,000 applications, testament to keen interest from foreign Jews, particularly in Israel. MORE

Feb. 4, 2014

Immigrant youth leaders gathered in Washington, DC, signal that they may be willing to consider supporting a Republican compromise proposal that would offer path to citizenship for young people but not for other illegal immigrants; move stems in part from growing frustration with Democrats while deportations under Obama administration continue. MORE

Feb. 1, 2014

Island nation of Malta is selling citizenship for 1.15 million euros, or $1.55 million; move is motivated in part by economic stress, and in part by what some call crass opportunism. MORE

Jan. 31, 2014

House Republican leadership's call to provide legal status for 11 million undocumented workers, and possible citizenship for those who were brought into the United States as children, causes sharp divisions in the party. MORE

Jan. 31, 2014

Op-Ed article by Prof Mae M Ngai criticizes Republican's immigration reform agenda for ruling out a special path to citizenship for undocumented migrants; contends opposition to such path is out of sync with democratic principles, historical practice and the vast majority of public opinion. MORE

Dec. 13, 2013

Op-Ed article by Prof Lorgia Garcia-Pena condemns the unjust ruling by the Dominican Constitutional Court that denies citizenship rights to those born to undocumented people; contends ruling is particularly extreme given that it is retroactive to 1929, putting those who know no other country than the Dominican Republican in civic limbo. MORE

Nov. 25, 2013

Nonpartisan group Public Religion Research Institute reports that 63 percent of Americans across party and religious lines favors legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the United States illegally. MORE

Nov. 21, 2013

Congress’s efforts on immigration have foundered over naturalization for those in the United States illegally, yet many immigrants say they would settle for less; for foreigners who cannot get a drivers license in most states and live with gnawing fear of being fired or deported, legalization without direct route to citizenship would be enough; most immigration advocacy groups oppose any legislation that would deny millions of people the opportunity for full equality. MORE

Nov. 16, 2013

Obama administration issues new policy that will allow immigrants in United States illegally who are close relatives of active military troops and veterans to stay and move toward becoming permanent residents; shift comes as legislation to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants has stalled in Congress. MORE

Oct. 24, 2013

Dominican Republic's top court declares that children of undocumented Haitian migrants, even those born on Dominican soil decades earlier, are no longer entitled to citizenship; decision throws into doubt the status of tens of thousands of people who have never known any other national identity. MORE

Oct. 18, 2013

Protesters in Times Square, within view of the Dominican consulate, denounce recent court ruling in Dominican Republic annulling citizenship of anyone born there to noncitizens after 1929; decision applies to as many as 200,000 people, mostly of Haitian descent. MORE

Oct. 12, 2013

Arizona, barred by Supreme Court from requiring proof of citizenship for federal elections, is setting up a separate registration system for local and state elections that will demand such proof; state joins Kansas in planning for such a two-tiered voting system, which could keep thousands of people from participating in state and local elections. MORE

Oct. 10, 2013

Ken Detzner, Florida's secretary of state and the man in charge of elections, tries to stoke confidence in a revamped plan to remove noncitizens from voter rolls before a largely skeptical crowd in immigrant-heavy South Florida; meeting's combative tone is the latest measure of the distrust engendered by state's move in 2012 to try to weed out noncitizens from registration lists months before polls opened. MORE

Oct. 8, 2013

Arizona is planning dual-track voting system allowing people who register without submitting proof of citizenship to vote for federal offices but not state or local offices. MORE

Sep. 23, 2013

Bill Keller Op-Ed column reflects on merits of a California proposal to open juries to permanent legal residents; contends requiring green card-holders to serve on juries offers a most effective means of inducting people into a culture of rights and responsibilities. MORE

Sep. 8, 2013

More than half of California's 15 Republican members of Congress lead districts that are at least 30 percent Latino, making them potentially vulnerable to Democratic challenges from those pushing for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants; some Republicans in state, like Rep David Valadao, are offering full-throated support for sweeping changes to country's immigration laws. MORE

Aug. 26, 2013

Millions of green card holders are intentionally forgoing United States citizenship, citing reasons including lack of desire, opposition to US policy and patriotism for their native country; as many as 40 percent of all green card holders do not naturalize, upending popular narrative at the core over debate about immigration. MORE

Aug. 14, 2013

Brookings Institution study presents what group calls 'an emerging portrait' of young immigrants who have sought temporary reprieve from deportation under year-old program that is one of Pres Obama's signature immigration initiatives; findings may boost arguments from immigration advocates that many young immigrants should be granted expedited path to legal status because they were brought to United States at young age and are essentially American. MORE

Jul. 25, 2013

Immigration rights advocates are hopeful after House Republicans show tentative signs that they are open to some possibility of citizenship for those brought to the United States illegally as young children. MORE

Jul. 16, 2013

Congress's debate over immigration reform continues to focus on illegal immigrants, but more than 4.4 million aspiring legal immigrants are languishing in backlogs in a broken visa system; broad bill passed by Senate in June includes ambitious measures to eliminate green card backlogs and create a new merit program, but House Republicans have made it clear they will not take up that bill. MORE

May. 28, 2013

Op-Ed article by law student Christopher M Lapinig argues that tens of thousands of Filipinos who were fathered by American servicemen stationed abroad should have path to United States citizenship. MORE

May. 23, 2013

Tens of thousands of workers in heart of tech industry who were born overseas and educated in United States remain in limbo waiting for green cards as Senate considers immigration bill; bill will make it easier for science, math and engineering graduates of American universities to become permanent residents, and lift limits on how many immigrants are allowed in from each country. MORE

May. 20, 2013

Spanish government has yet to put into practice new rules that significantly ease naturalization process for Sephardic Jews; delay has left nearly 3,000 applicants for citizenship frustrated as they wait for review. MORE

Apr. 21, 2013

Some opponents of immigration reform, with national debate on issue beginning in Congress, are pointing to the Boston Marathon bombings as cause for concern about expanding visa programs and offering illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. MORE

Apr. 16, 2013

Bipartisan group of eight senators plans to unveil sweeping immigration legislation that is likely to ignite months-long battle between those who want citizenship for nation's 11 million illegal immigrants and opponents who view such approach as amnesty. MORE

Apr. 11, 2013

Bipartisan group of senators largely agrees on broad immigration bill that would require tough border measures to be in place before illegal immigrants could take first steps to become American citizens; bill does not impose any specific measurements of border enforcement results that, if they were not met, would stop immigrants from moving toward citizenship. MORE

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A three-judge panel said it could find “no legitimate state interest” to justify treating young immigrants in a federal program differently from other noncitizens whose work permits Arizona had traditionally accepted as proof of authorized presence in the United States.